A number of cup shaped thermal heat packs are known in the prior art in which thermal heat is provided through a heat pack to provide a therapeutic heat to the human body. Examples of this type of heat pack are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,304,215 of the Applicant's, U.S. Pat. Nos. Re 14,024 of Whitmarsh, 2,298,361 of Freund, 3,500,832 of Nunnery, and 5,050,595 of Krafft.
Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,621 of Fletcher discloses a liquid cooled brassiere used with diagnostic mammography. Other brassiere patents in general are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,853,077 of Hunau and 3,430,632 of James.
Heat packs in general are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,780,537 of Spencer and 4,846,176 of Golden. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,821 of Lerner describes a swimming garment wherein breast shaped cups are formed from flat sheets having V-shaped cuts in the sheets.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,552,149 of Jatsuki describes a cooling implement for the head which includes a skull portion and an alternate chin portion. U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,281 of Cooper describes a refillable oval cooling pack with an in flow tube for use during surgery to cool an organ, such as a heart. U.S. Pat. No. 4,044,773 of Baldwin describes a rectangular equine cooling pack for wrapping around a horse's leg.
Other patents include U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,348 of Mayn, U.S. Pat. No. 3,830,676 of Elkins and U.S. Pat. No. 2,049,723 of Pomeranz. However, Mayn '348 described a refillable heat pack which may leak, and contains a large weight which tends to compress the breast uncomfortably, and Mayn can only be used in a lying, supine position, rendering the user immobile. Elkins '676 and Pomeranz '723 are for placement upon the head and Pomeranz '723 includes a circumferential elastic band to keep it upon the crown of a skull, which elastic band could squeeze a breast uncomfortably. Moreover, Pomeranz '723 and Elkins '676 are refillable, and therefore prone to leakage.
These patents are incorporated by reference herein for teaching devices in which heat packs are provided for therapeutic use or otherwise.
With the exception of the heat pack described in Applicants'U.S. Pat. No. 5,304,215 of Apr. 19, 1994, the above prior art devices have many disadvantages. Typically the devices include cup shaped portions which do not conform closely to various sizes of the breast. If the heat pack does not snugly fit the breast once in position, the heat pack may be too tight or too loose to optimize heating resulting in uneven application of heat to the breast.